Post-Halloween Event: WoW Day of the Dead 2017

The WoW Day of the Dead event runs from November 1st to 3rd, just at the end of Hallow’s End. This festivity is related to the Mesoamerican holiday “Día de Los Muertos,” which is celebrated mainly in México and in some states with Mexican communities and other Central American countries.

The Grateful Dead Quest in WoW Day of the Dead

Get some Simple Flourand Ice Cold Milk and go to your race’s capital city. Afterward, you’re going to look for Catrina in the graveyard.

La Calavera Catrina was an illustration made by the Mexican José Guadalupe Posada, depicting a female skeleton dressed as what the Mexican people aspired to be: a classic European of their time (the 1900s). With that aristocratic feeling, a great hat, and a happy smile, the Catrina became an iconic image for the Day of the Dead.

Since then, this pretty skeleton has been used and modified hundreds of times to explain a bit of the Mexican cultural influence and appreciation of death. In 2014 I watched the movie The Book of Life and it gave me an intimate sight of this Mesoamerican celebration. Go watch it!

Not only that, la Catrina is used in this event to portrait all this and give joy to players who always want to dress up.

After you find this gorgeous lady, she’ll give you some info about the event. IMPORTANT: don’t forget to dance with her, you’ll gain the achievement Dead Man’s Party, a one time in a year opportunity and you will also turn into a handsome Chapman or beautiful Catrina (both skeletons) for twelve hours.

Then you can buy an Orange Marigold or a Bouquet of Orange Marigolds from Chapman. After you use the item, you’ll be able to see the spirits that appear on this day. When you see the spirit, it will tells you this:

“It’s good to visit with friends and family again, though I may have overdone it… I’ve already eaten everything they made for me! Might I trouble you for some more of that delicious Bread of the Dead? I’d be most grateful…Chapman there sells the recipe, I think.”

The quest is called The Grateful Dead, and it has to do mainly with the Mexican celebration. It’s important to note that you’ll only get this quest at your race’s home city. So, if you’re an undead, go to Undercity (not Orgrimmar), except for Dalaran (both Legion and Burning Crusade) because in this city, all races can get the quest, thankfully, including the Pandaren.

This a clear reference to the Mexican custom: people eat Pan de Muerto in the graveyard, meaning they’re enjoying that food with the dead. In this festivity, people go and build altars for their departed family and loved ones and they also put some food and items that were enjoyed by the dead. It is said that if you’re not forgotten by your friends and family, you’ll live forever in the afterlife. That’s why these people work so hard in pleasing the deceased ones.

Anyhow, go back to Chapman and buy the “Bread of the Dead” recipe. This is a cooking recipe so make sure you have at least level 1 in this profession. Then you use the Simple Flour and the Ice Cold Milk you bought before to cook it. After you give the bread to the spirit and therefore turn in the quest, you will be awarded with the cutest undead battle pet: the Macabre Marionette, a tiny skeleton with a sombrero (hat) and shaking maracas.

Day of the Dead Costumes

After 2014, World of Warcraft featured some new toys regarding this holiday: the Contender’s Costumes. These are cool but not much apart to what a Draenei or Blood Elf mage would wear while leveling. They can be purchased from Chapman for only 100g each, and as you may use them for the achievement, you can keep them in your Toy Box.

When you put the costume on, you gain three abilities that can be used to engage combat with the other contenders. Defeating people will get you the following achievements:

Defeating 1 contender: awards you To the Afterlife.

Defeating 20 contenders: awards you Vientos!

Defeating 50 contenders: awards you Calavera.

Wrapping Things Up

Blizzard has an amazing attention to detail, decorating the graveyards with Dead of the Day altars resembling the real ones. Make sure to visit the other cities since they feature different decorations and spirits. To summarize, I listed the special things of The Day of the Dead.

Bouquet of Orange Marigolds: a wearable off hand, a bouquet of flowers.

Candy Skull: om nom nom, candies!

Spirit Candle: increases spirit.

Whimsical Skull Mask: cosmetic head.

Achievements

To the Afterlife, Vientos! and Calavera are a series of achievements that require you to defeat some contenders while wearing the contender’s outfit (1, 20, and 50) respectively.

Dead Man’s Party, after dancing with Catrina.

Do Everything Fast

Make sure to grab the Ice Cold Milk and the Simple Flour.

Don’t forget to dance with the Catrina.

Have at least level 1 in Cooking.

If you want to trade kills with a friend (i.e., killing each other as contenders) you could do it in an instance to save the spawning time.

The durability of your armor is not damage, so don’t worry about having Jeeves around.

Try to do all the achievements or you’ll have to wait an entire year to have another opportunity!

The amazing World of Warcraft always give us entertaining events to do something different and collect stuff. Achievements, pets, transmogs, and mounts are just a tiny bit of what these festivities hold for us. I hope you guys have a great Day of the Dead event!